What if we look into the night sky, but can’t understand what it says? This happens all the time, because we sent Meaning away once. All of us. Banished it from our minds. Cut ourselves right in two like cosmic butchers. Each from each. Then each from each again. For our own good, we said. Looked up at the stars. Lost count. Lost our way. Every half blamed the other. We’ve got the right half, we […]
Who are we? It is perhaps the fundamental question of both science and religion, and certainly of what we call “spirituality”, a catch-all word with which I resonate in steadily decreasing degrees as time passes. Spirituality is all too often a repository for that which fails to fit nicely into one of the generally accepted practices for knowledge cultivation in our dominant cultures. Definitions aside, for most of us I think the essential purpose of […]
There’s a kindness that isn’t about doing the right thing, or being good. It’s not about holding the door open for a stranger to be polite, or even nice. There’s a kindness that’s about upping the ante and challenging the status quo, about asking the kind of question that provokes a crisp rebuke from your inner skeptic, that elicits a little wait and see because here comes another sweet dose of I told you so– […]
If you make a plot of human population over the past few thousand years, the results are– well listen, let’s speak plainly here, as friends who have not the time for posturing or taking offense: the results are startling. If you are inclined towards levity you may even have a chuckle as you gape at the steeply rising curve and reflect upon the multiplicative industriousness of the recent age. Experts in prognostication and the statistical arts such as […]
“The way will be muddy and seemingly alone, even when you find yourself in crowds, even when all the refugees are funneled together through a narrow pass. You will find yourself trying to avoid being crushed, trying to avoid being left behind, trying to avoid being starved, trying to avoid being plundered. You may dream of blue skies and sunlight, but your path will wind beneath overcast skies and sprinkling rain. You may dream of virgin […]
Your body is an ambassador, a communication technology, really, and you are the Message given it to convey to the world. Right off you might assume there would be far simpler and more reliable delivery mechanisms available in the cosmos for sending Messages, but the Writer has a unique problem in that Everything She touches comes to Life… Alright, alright, shush and look here, now- it’s not a problem, it’s an Opportunity is really the best way to […]
Been ‘way fer a few days. Vizit’n friends… what I wish I could call it. Nope. Cain’t say ‘at in good faith. Got me real serious like. Focus-al-“I”-zed, ye might say. All et once, yer walkin’ in a world o’ coloured glass. The whole thing’s a mirage, bunch o’ movin’ pitchures yer tryin’ like almighty hell to tame, to ketch hold o’ an’ shake some sense in’neh. An’ it jes crumbles in yer handz… Ye […]
It’s easy to think I have made a breakthrough, put the pieces together just right, as if I were a scientist grappling with and making plain the mysteries of salvation. It wouldn’t be all that difficult to conjure an image of myself twirling a dry erase marker in one hand and sloshing a cup of coffee absentmindedly in the other while pacing back and forth in front of wall-to-wall white boards. On them are scribbled […]
I could say I wasn’t afraid. But I was. Me and that feeling looked each other in the eye, and I looked away. Shrugged my shoulders. Flicked up my collar. Kicked the dirt. Got a hobby. Next day shipping, of course. Ran half way across the world. Whatever. I was desperate to tag out, to sneak out of the ring, maybe get into promotions, have an office with high ceilings, be famous or happy or […]
During this time of Thanksgiving Holiday here in America, I had occasion to sit with friends, family, friends’ families, and family friends, to share a meal (or two). A side effect of the modern family and its bifurcating reality is that there are Thanksgiving meals going on for the better part of the week. I participated in or heard about gatherings taking place on just about any day of the past week and at one […]
Embracing Forever 